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Tuesday, 23 June 2015

Rose-Tinted Toner

Lately, I've been reaching for natural skincare - the kind our grandmothers always talked about but we never really cared to try. I love flashy packaging and I think my main reason for trying any product is how it's presented but it was time to change that. The struggle of balancing finances with beauty and the environment has led me to reach for a toner that has consistently been recommended by South Asian women.

The other day I heard someone talking about a coconut oil infused hair mask and I realized that I (and so many others) was making a silly mistake. Why spend money on slathering your hair with chemicals that contain trace amounts of coconut oil when you can just use coconut oil as the hair mask? It's also a South Asian recommendation and I've written a post about it here.

But I've been making the same silly mistake with other products - buying expensive products that are enriched with rose and rose water when my family always has a bottle of rose water in the house. So my toner at choice is the very inexpensive rose water! It's great for reducing redness, cleansing and hydrating the skin. I use it in the mornings after I wash my face, wiping it all over with a quarter of a cotton ball (that's all you need - let's save the environment kids!) and letting it dry on my skin before going in with my moisturizer. The scent bothered me at first (despite not being overpowering) but it disappears after a few minutes and you're left with hydrated skin. I do find it's helped with the texture of my skin as well as breakouts and it's now a cheap, must-have in my beauty regimen. It can also (supposedly) be used as a makeup remover but I find that you need to rub it in quite a bit if you want your pesky mascara to come off. Other benefits can be found here if you're interested.

I buy my rosewater from South Asian grocery stores (serious SA love in this post!) and I haven't checked elsewhere but it's not a hard ingredient to find. If not at your local grocery store, check Arab/SA stores around you as they're a staple there!